Crews have North Front Street fire under control

NEW BEDFORD — An early morning fire today gutted a three-story uninhabited apartment house at 310 North Front St., following about two hours after another blaze at a three-family home on 19 Nye St.

MICHAEL MEDEIROS

NEW BEDFORD — An early morning fire today gutted a three-story uninhabited apartment house at 310 North Front St., following about two hours after another blaze at a three-family home on 19 Nye St.

According to Deputy Chief Brian Faria, firefighters received a call at 10:24 p.m. reporting heavy fire on the porch areas of the Nye St. house. The fire had spread into the building by the time crews arrived.

"They got inside the building and extinguished it on the interior. There was severe damage," said Deputy Chief Faria.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

At 12:32 p.m., another call came in reporting the fire on North Front Street.

"That was a considerably larger fire," said Deputy Chief Faria. "There were heavy flames blowing out of the windows toward the south of the building."

A neighboring building, which housed a small business and apartments on the upper two floors, also caught fire, but firefighters extinguished the flames before it could spread through the building. There were at least two occupants in that building.

Fire crews were still on the scene shortly after 8 a.m., nearly eight hours after first responding to the blaze. The two blocks leading up to the house were blocked off, though the fire itself was out and firefighters were putting their gear away.

Officials were not yet able to comment on the details of the fire, but Roger Cornell, a neighbor, said he first noticed it at about 12:30 a.m.

“I heard glass breaking and heard somebody yelling. I turned my TV off and looked out the window, and heard somebody banging on doors telling people to get out,” he said.

Mr. Cornell went outside and from his back yard could see flames shooting out one of the windows of the building.

“It went in 15 or 20 minutes to being totally engulfed,” he said, noting that he didn’t know anyone who lived there.

Bystanders at the corner of Tallman and North Front Streets indicated that the house was vacant, having been foreclosed on just before Christmas.

Two men watching firefighters pour water into the windows of all three floors said they had heard a window break, quickly followed by someone calling in Spanish that the building was on fire. The two men said they were asleep in the neighboring triple-decker and exited by the fire escape at the rear of the building.

An investigation is ongoing, and no suspected cause of the fire has been released. The State Fire Marshall's office and the New Bedford Police Department are involved in the investigation, and Deputy Chief Faria said a press conference will likely be called later today to present more details about the fire.